


Hell Hath No Fury

by books_are_my_patronus1397



Series: The only 5am I wake up for [6]
Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Universe, F/M, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-05
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22126366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/books_are_my_patronus1397/pseuds/books_are_my_patronus1397
Summary: The secret is out that Sam Yao may hold the key to immunity, and some people will do anything, or sacrifice anyone, to get it for themselves.But they'll have to go through Runner Five first.
Relationships: Runner Five/Sam Yao
Series: The only 5am I wake up for [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/849882
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	Hell Hath No Fury

“It wasn’t _my_ fault they got out, they just escaped. They’re crafty!”

Five smiled, checking her surroundings out of habit. Sam crashed through the underbrush behind her, attempting to explain why he was banished from the chicken coops for two weeks. They weren’t on a stealth mission and no zoms were in the vicinity according to Janine, so she didn’t scold him for the noise. But she remained alert.

“Didn’t you talk to Berto before you volunteered to collect the eggs?” she asked softly.

Sam made a face. “Well, yeah, sort of. But he’s biased, and did not give me the necessary warnings.”

She was about to disagree when the hair on the back of her neck prickled. Five froze, holding out a hand. Sam bumped into it before he realized she had stopped. He noticed the careful expression on her face and immediately started looking around. “What is it?” he whispered.

Five shook her head. Her eyes darted from tree to tree, searching for unusual silhouettes or out of place shadows. But the copse was empty. Sunlight filtered through the branches, dappling the long grass underneath in shifting patterns of shadow. 

“Janine, do you see anything?” Sam asked for her.

_“No,”_ Janine answered. “ _There’s nothing. Five?”_

Five frowned. She hadn’t survived this long in this world by ignoring her instincts. “I don’t know.”

_“You’re the one on the ground, and I trust your judgment, but…”_

“We need that radio equipment from the supply drop,” Five finished for her. Janine stayed silent but Five heard her plea anyway. Electronics like the ones Mullins had promised were invaluable. And they didn’t have the time to circumnavigate this area and be back in Abel by nightfall. They couldn’t turn back.

She looked over and met Sam’s worried gaze. “Stay close.” He nodded and she moved forward, taking her axe out of its sheath. As they walked deeper into the grove the trees got thicker. Eventually Janine notified them that she had lost visual because the tree cover had become too dense.

After a while Sam started to relax. They were moving slowly and there were still no signs of zoms or any other dangers. But Five couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being hunted.

“You know,” Sam grinned at her. “It’s nice to actually be outside the walls. Nobody ever thinks to ask the radio operator if he wants to stretch his legs.”

She couldn’t help her answering smile. “The air isn’t too fresh for you after all that time in the shack?” she teased.

He took a deep, exaggerated breath. “Not at all, in fact –” he doubled over in a sneeze before he could finish his sentence. Five stifled a laugh, though someone who didn’t know her would have described it as a giggle.

“Okay, that means nothing,” he pointed at her, his eyes still watering. She covered her mouth to hide her smile as he sneezed again.

A twig snapped on her left and Five whipped her head around, her smile gone. A human figure emerged slowly from between the trees and she brandished her axe.

“That’s far enough!” she snapped, her voice cracking through air.

_“Five, report,”_ Janine’s voice hissed through the headset and filtered through Five’s brain, but she didn’t respond. The figure hesitated and she noted the gas mask obscuring their face. 

She looked around for Sam and noticed more figures approaching them. She counted six in total, ranged in a semi-circle, all of them wearing a hodge-podge of jackets and sweatshirts. Weapons bristled at their waists and back. Every one of their faces were covered by gas masks. Five reached out on instinct, brushing the edge of Sam’s shirt to make sure he was still close. Everything about their new companions told her they were a threat and they were human. They were too organized and deliberate to be zoms.

“If you come closer, I will use this,” she warned, holding her axe out to her side.

All of the figures looked to the one she had confronted first. The figure nodded and Five heard a soft click. She stepped backwards, pushing Sam behind her, searching frantically for whatever weapon the figure had just armed. 

She heard a soft hiss and suddenly fog began to rise from the grass. The white, smoky vapor twined around their legs and rose upwards. Her nose started to burn and it became harder to breathe. The ground wobbled as she took another step back, and when she tried to grab Sam she found nothing but air.

“Sam,” she rasped in panic. The poison fog continued to rise, obscuring her vision and turning the masked figures into silent, shadowy demons. Five pushed her unsteady feet forward, desperation fueling her rather than strength. 

She finally found him a few feet from where she had been standing, doubled over and coughing. “Run!” she ordered him. He latched on to her arms, his red-rimmed eyes afraid.

“Not without you!” His voice was rough and scratchy from the smoke. Five pushed at him to get him moving. Panic squeezed her lungs as her sight started to dim and he was still there. Her legs had stopped obeying her commands, but she didn’t care that she wasn’t going to make it. She just needed to get Sam out of here.

Five’s head pounded and she stumbled again. Her feet were too heavy to move. Sam tugged once on her arms and then fell to the ground in front of her, unconscious. Five crouched over him, the sharp fear in her heart not quite strong enough to push away the lethargy infecting her body.

Even with her blurred vision, Five could make out the tiny scuffs and scratches on the pair of combat boots that stepped next to her. She followed the legs upward and looked into the face of one of the masked people. The outline of his body wavered and she blinked hard. It didn’t help. As darkness pulled at her, the last thing she saw before falling unconscious was the expressionless mask looming above her in the fog. 

******

Five woke up with a start. Sunlight warmed her face and fresh, clean air filled her lungs. She pushed herself to her feet, searching frantically for their attackers. Dread filled her stomach like rocks as birds chatted with each other somewhere in the trees and a breeze trickled through the canopy, just kissing her cheeks. The people, and whatever gas they had used to knock her out, were long gone. 

She was alone.

"Sam?" she called out softly, though she didn’t really expect him to answer. She knew he was gone, but she couldn’t just _not_ call for him. Her only response was a few angry chirps from a squirrel nearby.

Five closed her eyes and squeezed the surging fear and fury into a small ball, which she then shoved away into a little pocket inside her chest where the emotions couldn’t distract her. When she was certain she had control, Five reached up and readjusted her headset.

"Abel, do you read?" 

_“Runner Five?”_ Janine answered immediately. “ _What happened? Are you all right?”_

Five ignored the question. "Do you have a location on Sam?" 

She heard a sharp intake of breath on the other end. _"No. He's not with you?”_

"We were ambushed." Her voice sounded flat to her own ears. "They had some sort of knockout gas.” She closed her eyes, mind reeling. “How long was I out?”

_“About an hour_ ,” Janine answered. “ _When we lost contact, we sent Runner Four to find you. She should be arriving at your location soon.”_

A bit of her anxiety eased. "Good," she said. "We may be able to find them before they get too far." She looked for signs that would tell her which direction they had gone.

_“The good news is, you are still clear of zoms for the moment_ ,” Janine assured her.

Five noted the update, sending a silent thanks to the universe none had come while she had been unconscious. That would have slowed her down.

She finally spotted some disturbed underbrush to the west of her position. Looking closer, she found a black piece of metal in the grass. Five picked it up and discovered a microphone from one of their headsets, snapped off where it normally attached to the head piece.

**Janine won’t be happy about this** , Five thought with a clinical eye to the damaged equipment.

_“Five—”_

“I’m following the trail,” she interrupted. She put the piece of equipment in her jacket pocket. “Jody can catch up.”

As she said that, quick footsteps approached from behind. Five turned and on instinct reached for the gun holster at her belt but relaxed as Jody came into view. Her cheeks were flushed from her fast run and a few locks of hair had escaped her ponytail.

“Five,” her face lit up in relief and she continued running forward, crushing her in a hug instead of stopping. “I’m so glad you’re all right!”

Five tightened her arms for a moment before releasing her friend. “Hey Jody,” she said with a strained smile.

“What happened?” Jody began her own examination of the woods. “I heard over the comms they had some sort of gas?”

Five nodded. “They were waiting for us,” she replied softly. “I walked us right into it and I couldn’t---” the moment her voice shook she snapped her mouth shut. 

Jody gripped her shoulder. “Hey, you couldn’t have known. We’ll get him back, don’t worry.”

_“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that, not yet_ ,” Janine interrupted over the headset. 

Five stilled. “What?”

She heard Janine sigh a little and Jody frowned. _"Runner Five, you’ll barely make it back to Abel before dark and we have no idea what effect the gas has had on you.”_

“If we go back now, we risk losing all sign of them,” Five argued, struggling to keep her tone measured and reasonable. 

  
_“I am sorry Five. But in addition to the risk of letting you go without examination, we don’t have sufficient information to launch a rescue mission. We need to regroup and come back at the situation more equipped--"_

"Janine," Five snapped. She was sure she had never spoken to anyone, especially Janine, in that tone before. But at this moment, she didn’t care. "With all due respect, I’m not returning to Abel without him. So either help me, or I’m turning this headset off."

Silence. Jody stared at her and they both waited for Janine’s response as the silence grew heavier. The wall Five had built around her emotions started to crack. “You’ve used me for everything else,” she snarled. “At least use me for this too.”

Jody raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say anything.

_“Very well_ ,” Janine answered after a final beat. Her voice gave nothing about her emotions away and Five wondered briefly how bad her likely punishment would be. But whatever it was, it would be worth it if it meant bringing Sam home. “ _Runner Four?”_ Janine asked.

“I’ll stay with Five,” Jody said with a grin and a wink at Five. “Besides, I haven’t been on an overnight run in a while. It’ll be good to stretch the legs.”

Five gave Jody a grateful look and Jody squeezed her hand.

_“You two better get going then if you want to track them in daylight.”_ Five winced at Janine’s strict professionalism. _“You’ll have a relief operator after sundown.”_

“Come on,” Jody re-settled her runner’s backpack on her shoulders. “Let’s go get our boy.”

***

Sam came to consciousness slowly. The moment he opened his eyes, bright fluorescent lights seared into his brain pounded at his head. He groaned and shut his eyes again. The last time he woke up with this bad of a headache it had been his first weekend at university and his flat mates had roped him into a game of Ring of Fire. It hadn’t gone well.

The light still stabbed through his closed eyelids. He raised his arm up to cover his face, but it was yanked to a halt. Surprise overcame his headache and opened his eyes again, noticing for the first time that his wrist was chained to a bed. Then he remembered: the woods, the knock-out gas. Five.

Sam sat up in a panic, ignoring the pain in his head as he looked wildly around the room for her. But the only thing in there was an empty nightstand and the closed door in front of him.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Is anyone there?"

There was a beat of silence, then he heard some shuffling outside. But no one responded.

"I know you're out there!" he yanked at the chain in frustration and it pinched his wrist. The chain itself was held in place by a thick padlock hooked around the bed frame. If he knew how to pick locks, he might have a chance of escaping. But that was Five's expertise.

The door finally opened with a soft creak. A short woman with dull blonde hair walked in. Her hair was pulled tightly back into a bun, sharpening the already stern features of her face. She held out a plastic cup filled with water. "Mr. Yao, you must be thirsty."

"Where is Five?" he asked, not taking the cup even though his throat burned. 

The woman blinked. "Who?"

Sam struggled to keep a grip on the fear that knotted in his chest. "The woman who was with me in the woods. Runner Five. Where is she?"

He could see the recognition in her eyes, but she didn't answer right away. Instead she glanced over her shoulder, looking decidedly impatient. "Hey," he snapped. She turned her head back around. "Tell me what's going on."

"I don't know where Runner Five is," she said, moving past him to place the cup of water on the nightstand. "We only wanted you. They had orders to leave your companion in the woods. It's anyone's guess what happened after that."

He yanked again at the chain. He knew it was futile but he couldn't help himself. The woman watched him struggle without changing her expression. "And you are who, exactly?" he asked.

She cocked her head. "Dr. Lisa Carletti." 

"Dr. Carletti, please, you gotta let me out of here," he pleaded. "Whatever is you want, I'm sure we can figure something out. Just let me contact my friends. This has got to be a misunderstanding."

Her responding smile was cynical. "There's no misunderstanding Sam. You have something everybody wants. We will just be the first to get it."

"What do you mean?" 

Lisa crossed her arms. "You’re Sam Yao. Radio Operator at Abel Township and the only person we know of who is immune to the zombie virus."

Sam sank back to the bed, his hands hanging limply between his knees. “So that’s why I’m here.”

She shrugged. “Can you blame us? You have an actual real-life cure.”

“We’re already working on a cure at Abel!” he said desperately. “It’s not like we were going to keep it a secret or anything.”

“You were working on it for the Ministry,” Lisa spat. Her emotionless mask finally cracked and Sam leaned back. “We all know what will happen if Abel creates a cure from your blood. The Ministry will swoop in and take it for themselves, giving it out to those they deem worthy. And the rest of us will be left to die.”

Sam gaped at her. “You can’t be serious. We’re trying to help people!”

“You may be.” Lisa turned at a commotion in the hallway. She signaled to the arrivals and two men entered the room. One of them grabbed Sam by the arm while the other unchained his wrist from the bed. “But the Ministry doesn’t care about your intentions. So, we’re going to do what we have to do. Don’t worry,” her smile was brittle as the men started to drag him out of the room. Sam pulled back and tried to dig his feet in, but it was like fighting the pull of the ocean tide. Lisa’s voice followed him out the door. “We won’t kill you. You’re too valuable to us.”

***

It was fairly simple to track seven people through the woods, and Five got the sense from the broken branches and scuffed ground that they were not too concerned about concealing their passage. As they followed the trail, the trees began to thin and Five and Jody eventually emerged into a field. The sky was a mix of the deep burnished orange and yellow that came with a setting sun. Five’s heart sank as she noticed the deep furrows of tire tracks in the grass. If they were in a vehicle, it would take that much longer to catch up.

“Well, at least we’ll be able to track them in the dark,” Jody muttered. 

Now that they were out of the woods, both Five and Jody could run faster across open ground. They stuck close to the tire tracks so as the sky darkened they wouldn’t lose the trail. That strategy worked for a while, until they tripped up onto the smooth, solid pavement of a road.

Jody jogged to the other side and clicked on a flashlight, sweeping the light across the ground. “I don’t see any tracks,” Jody said, head still bowed over the flashlight. “They must have taken the road.”

Five walked into the middle of the pavement looking first one direction and then the other. The road stretched like an arrow towards both horizons. The question was, which way was it pointing her towards?

The sky was clear and Five could see stars sprinkled throughout the sky. The moon was only a thin, bright scar in the dark. She forced herself to breathe and think, but the possibility that she would chose the wrong direction and maybe cost Sam his life weighed heavy on her mind.

Then her eyes caught a flicker of light farther down the road, like a star that had fallen to earth. “Jody,” she called. Jody looked up and clicked off her flashlight. Five pointed and Jody came to stand next to her, following the direction of Five’s pointed finger. “What do you think?”

Jody’s eyes glinted with a hard light. “I think it’s quite a coincidence someone is camping out the same night Sam is taken, on the same road his captors took.”

Five dipped her head. “Agreed.”

_“Be careful you two,”_ Maxine spoke up over the headset. _“Janine would not be happy if I let you get injured not five minutes after our shift change.”_

Jody nudged Five’s arm. “Good thing they left you your gun,” she said. Five smirked and pulled the gun from her holster. Not only had Sam’s captors left her weapons, they left her runner’s backpack and jacket. Either they were in too much of a rush to take her supplies, they didn’t care, or they were stupid. Whatever the reason, she would have to thank them.

_“When you two get close, split up and flank the campsite. When you’re both ready, I’ll give you the signal and you can attack at the same time.”_

Five and Jody nodded at each other and then took off down the road, the thrill of closing in on their quarry bringing some life back to their tired legs. On Maxine’s order, they split up to come at the camp from opposite directions. Five crouched and edged closer to the flickering light, taking care of where she placed her feet, the grass swallowing the sounds of her approach.

Two shadowed figures hunched close to the flames. They weren’t wearing any gas masks and it was too dark to see if any were in the vicinity. But as Five crept closer she could make out two men in the familiar hodgepodge of jackets and hoodies. Sounds of their conversation drifted through the air.

“I still can’t believe they couldn’t give us a ride back,” one man grumbled. His face was shadowed by stubble. “I hate being out here. I feel so exposed.”

“Shut up,” his companion responded. “You’ll draw the zoms to us with all your whining. Besides, the faster they get boy wonder back to the lodge, the faster we get a cure. Then we won’t have to worry about zoms at all.”

_“Get ready.”_

Five took a steadying breath and adjusted her grip on her handgun. **Five, four, three** , she counted steadily. **Two,** she steadied the gun with her other hand. **One.**

_“Now.”_

Five and Jody rose from the grass on either side of the enemy camp at the exact same time, weapons raised.

“Evening gentlemen,” Jody said with a cheerful smile. “Hands up, if you please.” 

The two men shot partway to their feet at the sight of them. The one Five was aiming at reached for a weapon, but she stepped towards him, emphasizing the gun pointed at his chest. “Don’t,” she hissed. The man quickly put his hands up and froze.

Jody gestured with her gun. “Why don’t you tie up your friend there for us? We’ve got a few questions and don’t want anyone doing something rash.”

“We don’t have any rope,” Jody’s guy snapped. He was the one with the stubble. Five’s target was clean-shaven. Jody tossed a length of thin rope at his feet without a word. He frowned at it, but after some encouragement from Jody tied up the hands and legs of his companion. Soon enough Five had him trussed up next to his friend. 

“Great,” Jody said. “Now, since we’re civilized folks, why don’t we start with names? Or,” she looked at Five. “We could just go with Thing One and Thing Two?”

“Go to hell,” Jody’s guy spat.

Jody shrugged. “Thing One it is.”

“His name’s Chris,” the clean-shaven one said. “I’m Jason. Look, we don’t have much on us, but you can take it, ok? Just let us go.”

“See, we don’t want your stuff,” Jody said. “We want information.” Jason and Chris glanced at each other and Jody crouched in front of them. Five stood behind her, weapon ready. “We want to know where you took our friend.”

***

Jason glanced over at the other woman standing guard. Her arms were crossed and she just stared at them while the other woman talked. Jason could swear he felt ice creep into his veins whenever he met her gaze.

He swallowed hard and tried to keep his voice from shaking. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.” He winced at the slight tremble.

She smiled sweetly and patted Jason on the cheek. Apprehension crawled across his skin. “Don’t lie,” she said. “We know you took him.”

Chris shifted. “Look, we got him first! We’re not just going to give up our prize.”

Jason tried to kick him. “Shut up!” he growled, eyeing the woman standing guard when she inhaled sharply.

“He’s not a prize.” The chatty woman’s voice suddenly got colder. “Tell us where you took him.”

“What are you going to do?” Jason mustered his bravado. Something rustled in the distance and he felt a rush of panic, but he couldn’t let them know that. “Shoot us?”

“Jody.”

He looked up in surprise at the woman who had, until now, been so silent.

She jerked her head and the two women moved off to confer. Jody shook her head at something the other woman said. Then they both paused and Jody touched her headset. The other woman glanced back at him and Chris over her shoulder and then took off in a jog, without another word.

“Hey! What’s going on?” he asked.

Jody stood with her back turned for a moment watching the other woman disappear into the darkness, before coming back to him and Chris. She pursed her lips and looked at him with concern.

“What is she doing?” Chris spoke up.

“You should talk, now, before Five gets back,” she said.

Jason jerked upright. “Wait, do you mean Runner Five? Like, from Abel?”

“Shit.” Chris snorted. “No way you’ll shoot us, not if you’re from Abel.”

Jason finally recognized Jody’s armband with a number four on it. He also noticed the hard glare she gave Chris. He wasn’t as certain as his companion that the two Abel runners wouldn’t harm them if necessary. 

“How do you know who Runner Five is?” Runner Four asked sharply.

Chris leaned over and spat on the ground. The dim campfire light cast ugly shadows across his face. “We should have killed her when we took the kid.”

_"Shut. Up._ ” Jason hissed.

Jody spun around and brought her gun up in response to something Jason didn’t hear. Her shoulders dropped slightly as Runner Five re-appeared. Something dark and red shone in her hand. Jason’s eyes widened and he leaned back instinctively as he realized she held a knife covered in gore.

Runner Five stepped towards them and Jody moved out of her way.

“I want to make something very clear.” Five’s voice was low and quiet, but he heard clearly the undercurrent of fury. “The man you took is my friend. And I want him back.”

“Yeah, well, that’s too bad. If you’re not used to losing people by now you won’t last very much longer,” Chris sneered, fear making him reckless.

Her face remained as impassive as stone, but something flashed in her eyes that made Jason regret Chris’s words for him. She moved closer, stalking them both like a wolf stalks its injured prey.

With careful precision, she knelt in front of Chris and placed the edge of the knife just above the delicate skin of his throat. The stench from the blood on the knife wafted towards Jason and he gagged. Chris recoiled, sweat beading on his forehead.

“Careful,” she chided. “I don’t think you want to startle me." She leaned forward to look up into his face. The knife didn’t move. “I haven’t had time to clean this since I took down a zom not too far from here. One nick, and the infection enters your bloodstream. You know what that feels like. Your skin starts to burn as the virus crawls its way to your heart and brain. Your lungs start to close up. You cough and cough until you can’t breathe anymore. You feel yourself dying, bit by bit, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

Chris did his best to sink back into the ground and create as much space as possible between him and the blade without actually moving and cutting himself. “You wouldn’t dare,” he choked out. 

Runner Five raised her eyebrows and Jason felt cold. “I don’t think you fully understand your situation.” She leaned closer, but Jason was close enough to hear the quiet menace in her voice. “My friend is gone. You and your friend are the only lead to getting him back. So, either you help us or you become an obstacle.”

She pressed the blade just a little harder against his neck. It wasn’t quite enough force to break the skin but it was enough to make him hiss. “And obstacles in my way don’t last very long.”

“Stop!” Jason said, looking at the knife and the smear of blood on Chris’s skin. Runner Five paused but she kept her eyes on Chris. “We aren’t going to hurt him.” He spoke quickly, hoping to get through to her before she turned his friend into a zom. “I swear, we just want the cure, that’s all.”

Runner Five closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if bracing against a strong wind. “I don’t care why you took him.” She opened her eyes once more and pinned Jason with her gaze. “I only care about where.”

Suddenly, she stood, looking out into the distance at something Jason couldn’t see. Runner Four stepped up next to her. “How far out?” she asked.

They weren’t speaking to him. He glanced over at Chris and noticed a little shine on his forehead from the firelight. The knife remained in Five’s hand.

“Thanks Maxine,” Runner Five murmured. She stared at Chris a moment longer and then wiped her weapon carefully on grass. This time she addressed Jason. “I’m not going to need this.”

“It appears you two have a choice,” Runner Four said, examining her fingernails. “Turns out, we’ve got decent sized horde coming our way. The one Five took out was just the preview.”

Pure, instinctual fear froze his heart for a moment. Were they going to just leave him here to die? Not only die, but be slowly and painfully ripped apart by the undead? These were Abel runners, everyone knew they were the soft ones.

“Option A, we untie you and you show us to your stronghold which just so happens to be where your friends took our friend. Option B is—”

“You fend for yourselves,” Runner Five finished coldly. Runner Four glanced at her, but didn’t contradict her.

“Not really much of a choice,” Chris grumbled, but with considerably less heat than before.

Jason felt a chill at the back of his neck, as if his body already anticipated the teeth that would soon sink into him. “All right,” he said. Chris shot him a dirty look, but he didn’t care. Chris knew as well as he did that they were as good as dead. Besides, maybe by the time they arrived the Doc would have gotten what she needed and they could get the cure anyway.

“We’ll take you.”

*******

The four of them kept a steady pace as they moved through the countryside, keeping comfortably ahead of the horde. Five’s nerves were strained from listening to Maxine, keeping an eye out for zoms and ensuring their captives didn’t escape or turn on them. And underlying it all was her ever-constant worry for Sam.

“Hey, um, Five,” Jody said softly, keeping her own watch on the captives. “Would you really have wanted to leave them there? By themselves?”

Five glanced at Jody, jogging steadily next to her. “You think I would?”

It took her a while to respond. “I don’t know,” she admitted carefully. “Normally, I would say no. But right now, you just seem a little…lost. Like you’ve got nothing to lose.” Jody watched her for a moment before continuing. “I just don’t want you to do something you’ll regret. You already shoulder enough guilt for things that aren’t really your fault.” Five grimaced and Jody rushed to reassure her, “I’m saying this as a friend you know.”

“I do know,” Five answered with a half-smile. “And honestly? I’m not sure what I would have done.” She hated herself for saying it. She should have been sure. She should have been certain she would never leave these two men to die. She was supposed to be the good guy, isn’t that what Simon said? She was always supposed to be the good guy. 

Jody’s voice brought Five out of her thoughts. “Hey, it’s easy to lose it a little when someone you love is in danger.”

Five glanced sharply at Jody, her heart racing with a whole different kind of fear. “What do you mean?”

She put her hands up. “I’m not saying anything. Just…I’ve got your back.”

Five gave Jody a look as their captives stumbled to a stop. The two men were hunched and breathing raggedly.

“We need a break,” Chris growled at them. Five itched to keep going; she and Jody were barely winded. But their captives weren’t runners and if she pushed them too hard, they wouldn’t make it to their headquarters. She nodded.

“Fine,” Jody said. “We’ve got a little time for you to catch your breath.”

The dark night was heavy and thick, and the sliver of moon did nothing to illuminate the fields around them. They had turned off of the blacktop some time ago, following an overgrown gravel road. She had grown used to the rhythmic crunch of gravel beneath their feet, and the sudden silence was unsettling. Wind rustled through the grass, as if it was searching for something.

Five frowned and stepped away from the group, listening hard to the wind. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she picked apart the noises on the air. Her eyes darted every direction, trying to pin down any unnatural movement in the grass but the wind made it impossible to see where the danger was.

“Guys, we need to—”

Chris screamed, his voice shattering the night air. Five whirled around to see Jason stumbling backwards in horror and Jody reaching for one of her knives. A grey, decaying arm grasped at Chris’s leg. Flesh hung from the limb in ribbons, dragging through the grass. Its fingers were digging into Chris’s leg, but his jeans protected him for now. Another arm rose from the ground and clawed at Chris, pulling a head with it. The zom’s single eye rolled around in its skull and its teeth gnashed slowly.

“Oh God, stop it, somebody stop it!” Chris shrieked, trying to shake of the zombie before it was too late.

Jody yelped and jumped back as another zom grasped at her from the ground. She quickly dispatched it, plunging her blade through the rotting skull. The zom collapsed in an instant, but they didn’t have time to relax. Another one appeared at Five’s feet, growling and reaching up at her. Five kicked at it, the skull caving in like a rotting pumpkin.

Jason was cursing and hopping from foot to foot, searching the ground frantically. He was unbalanced with his hands bound, and Five lunged towards him. Jason threw up his hands on instinct to defend himself, but Five went right for the ropes on his wrists and yanked him forward. A zom snapped at empty air where his left leg had been.

Before she could get to him, Chris stumbled and hit the ground hard. As the zoms converged on him the pitch of his screams rose into terror. Five leapt toward him, knife in hand, and started swinging.

“We have to get out of here!” Jody shouted from behind her. “Maxine?”

_“I can’t see anything on the cams!”_ Maxine snapped. _“The grass is too tall.”_

Five turned away from a particularly gruesome spray of blood as the last zombie attacking Chris fell still. She could hear more approaching, but they at least had a moment to breathe. She hauled Chris to his feet by his shirt collar. He was sobbing and bloody. “Are you bit?” she asked, her voice clipped. She couldn’t see underneath the blood.

Chris just stared at her. “Are you bit?!” she repeated.

He finally shook his head and Five grabbed his hands, cutting away his ropes as well. The wind had died, but the grass around them continued to move as the crawlers crept closer with no way to tell where they were coming from. “Let’s go.”

“Where?!” Jason asked. Jody yelled as she kicked out at another crawler emerging through the grass. “We’re surrounded by zoms we can’t see, we’ll be killed in minutes!”

“We will be killed if we stay here,” Five snapped. “The faster we get to your base, the faster you’re safe. Now _run_!”

***

Sam huddled on the floor and buried his head in his arms. The fresh bandages scratched his skin, but he hardly noticed. He could still hear the zom growling, it’s chain clinking as it reached for him. His arm throbbed with the memory of its teeth sinking into his skin.

Tears leaked from underneath his closed eyes and dripped down his chin. He had tried, desperately tried, to explain to them that it was useless. After he was first exposed, his blood stopped producing whatever they needed to figure out a cure. At least, as far as Maxine and Paula had explained to him. But they wouldn’t listen and threw him in that room anyway. 

He curled further into himself as these more recent memories overlapped with past ones of being trapped and attacked by zoms. His heart raced in his chest as they played on a loop, faster and faster until he couldn’t distinguish between this lodge and that building and all he could feel was pain.

**Breathe with me, Sam**. A memory of Five kneeling in front of him and holding his hands cut into the whirling images in his head. Not long after the whole disaster with Sarah and the zombies, Five had found him in the comms shack. He had just avoided a close call with one of his runners—they had been trapped in a barn surrounded by zoms. Janine ended up having to step in to get them out because he had completely choked. 

Later Five found had him, still in the comms shack, having what Maxine had diagnosed as a panic attack. She simply sat and breathed with him until the pressure in his chest eased. 

Sam grasped on to that memory, breathing with the Five in his head until the horrifying memories faded and all he could see was her gentle smile and understanding eyes. **I get them too,** she admitted softly to him that day. **Remember, we stick together.**

Except she wasn’t here this time. They had been left her unconscious out in the wilderness. For all he knew she could be dead.

The door to his room opened and Dr. Carletti walked in with a plate of food. She paused when she saw him sitting on the floor, and then sighed and set the plate on the side table next to his bed. “I am sorry Mr. Yao, but this is necessary.”

Anger flared through his body and Sam glared up at her. “But it’s not! I told you, we’ve tried everything you’ve tried.”

“Have you tried testing your daughter?” she asked. Her detached curiosity sent a chill down Sam’s spine.

“Absolutely not, she’s a baby!” He got to his feet, “and if you even think about touching her, I swear—”

Dr. Carletti raised her hands in surrender. “Don’t worry. We have no intentions to launch an all-out attack against Abel just to get at her. We don’t have the numbers or the ammunition to do so. At least not yet.”

“You’re awful,” Sam growled, fresh tears in his eyes. “Don’t you care at all what you’re doing?”

Dr. Carletti locked genuinely shocked. “Of course I do! I don’t enjoy hurting people. But sacrificing one person for the rest of the human race? I’m not the only one who would make that choice.”

He knew she was right about that. “But there are better ways to get what you want,” he argued, knowing it was futile. “Why can’t we just work together?”

“Because in this world, if you don’t get what you want first you get eaten,” she answered. “You look out for yourself, and your own. There’s no room for anything else.”

“That doesn’t have to be true,” he insisted. “We can build something better.”

She shook her head and headed back towards the door. “It’s amazing you’ve been able to stay so naïve all this time.”

Sam watched her walk away, without any understanding of how _wrong_ she was. His fear and frustration boiled past his tipping point. “You won’t get away with this!”

Dr. Carletti paused at his outburst and raised one eyebrow. He glared at her, full of righteous fury that buried his despair. “My friends will find me. We have survived a whole lot worse than you.”

“It’s interesting you should say that.” She crossed her arms. “We still have eyes on Abel Township. Since you’ve been gone, they’ve only sent one runner out. And no one has come back. Not even your Runner Five.”

She misread the look in his eyes and nodded. “That’s right, Mr. Yao. No one is coming for you. So you might as well eat and rest. You’ll need your strength.” She closed her hand around the door knob, but before pulling it shut she looked back at him. “You better hope we get what we need from you, or we will take it from someone else. Whatever it takes.”

The door swung shut with a heavy thud and he listened to the locks fall into place. Sam collapsed onto the bed, not bothering to look at the food she left him. One of his runners had left Abel and hadn’t come back. Five hadn’t come back. And if Dr. Carletti’s spies hadn’t seen a body, or the runner return, Dr. Carletti was wrong. 

Five was alive. And she was coming to get him.

***

Five braced her hands on her knees, breathing hard. Jody and their two captives turned companions stumbled to the top of the hill just behind her. Jason plopped to the ground and Chris turned to look at the field of crawlers they had managed to navigate.

“Christ,” Jody gasped as she came up next to Five. “What the hell Maxine? Where did all of those come from?”

_“I have no idea, they came out of nowhere!”_ Maxine said. _“I’m so, so sorry. Is everyone all right?”_

Jody looked up at Five, meeting her eyes. “I think so?”

Five glanced away and closed her eyes, steeling herself for what had to happen next. Chris had started limping not long after they left the site of the first attack. She wanted to believe that he had escaped unscathed, she really did. Despite the concerns she voiced to Jody earlier about what she was willing to do to get Sam back, she really didn’t want to kill this man.

She unholstered the gun from her belt, and kept it lowered at her side. Jody noticed and straightened, positioning herself behind Five as backup.

Five stepped closer to Chris, ignoring Jason’s concerned look. “Lift up your pant leg,” she ordered. 

Chris turned to her and sneered. “Or what? You’ll leave me for the zoms again?”

She swallowed hard, trying not to remember his screaming when the zombies attacked him. Trying to remember that he was one of the men who took Sam. She brought her other hand to support the butt of the gun, but kept the barrel pointed down. “I won’t ask you again.”

They glared at each other for a few long seconds before Chris grudgingly bent down and raised up his right paint leg. Jason, who had stood up and moved closer to the three of them, cursed softly. A big, angry circular gash covered Chris’s calf. He had lied to her.

“You happy now?” he spat. “We helped you and you killed me anyway!”

“Maybe if you hadn’t abducted our friend, this wouldn’t have happened!” Jody snapped back. Her hand hovered over her own gun, just in case.

“We didn’t kill you,” Five said, her voice low. “The zoms did.”

“If you would have let us have the cure, it wouldn’t have mattered!” Chris stalked towards them and Five brought the gun up. He didn’t seem to notice. “You know what? I’m glad we took that kid. I’m glad the doc is going to drain him dry until we get that cure, and then we’re going to come after you—”

_BANG!_

Five stared at the empty space where Chris had been standing. She didn’t look at his limp body on the ground, she didn’t look at her companions. Her hands were as steady as stone but the blood pounded in her ears. The last echoes of the gunshot faded into the air.

She took a sharp breath through her nose.

And holstered her gun.

When she turned, Jody was looking at her with approval but Jason’s skin was ashy. He looked ready to bolt at any moment. “Well?” she asked him.

He swallowed a couple of times before answering. “He was bit,” he finally said, staring at Chris’s still body. “You did what you had to.”

Five nodded. “Come on, then. We need to keep moving.”

_“Five_ ,” Maxine interrupted, gently. _“You all need to rest, just for a little while. You’ll be no good to Sam dead on your feet.”_

Five turned her back on the body and her remaining captive and stared out into the slowly lightening sky. Straining to cross the distance with just her sight.

“We’ll move a ways down the hill,” Jody suggested. “If we wait until the sun has risen above the horizon, that will give us a few hours.”

Five knew they were right, and she knew Jody was being kind by only giving them a couple of hours. Both she and Five had run for nearly two days straight. Jody must be exhausted and Jason wasn’t faring too well either. Five could feel her own fatigue spreading slowly through her body like algae spreads over a still pond. 

“Fine,” she said. “But we need to keep a look out.”

The settled in near a large boulder halfway down the hill. Five perched on top of the boulder and rested her chin on her knees. Jody was asleep as soon as she curled up on the ground. Five didn’t think Jason was asleep—his breathing was too shallow—but as long as he stayed put she wouldn’t worry about it. It’s not like she was going to get to sleep either.

She watched long, thin clouds turned pink as the sky lightened to a soft comforting grey. In the distance she could see tendrils of fog resting on top of the earth like a blanket. She could almost imagine that they had slipped into another world, one without zombies and kidnapped friends.

A spot of deep gold on the horizon heralded the rising sun, even if she couldn’t see sun itself. She watched the colors change and spread, agonizing over the sun’s slow ascent.

“We’re just trying to protect the people we love.”

Five turned slightly, her weapons belt scraping across the stone, to look at Jason. If he had fallen asleep at all it hadn’t done him much good. There were bags under his eyes and his hair was matted and dirty. He looked terrible. “So am I,” she told him.

“How is it fair, that he gets to be immune?”

“It’s not about fair,” she said, her voice hard. “You _took_ him. When all you had to do was reach out to us. We would have given you the cure, once we figured it out.”

Jason scoffed. “You say that now. But what if it was a limited resource? Are you really telling me that Abel would give it away before making sure all of their people were safe?”

Five stayed silent. She couldn’t tell him that. Janine was practical, of course she would want the most important people inoculated first. And Five was selfish. She would want her family safe, if it came down to choosing between strangers and Abel. But would her friends even take it, knowing that there were others who needed it? She could name a few who wouldn’t, who would give their shot at immunity to someone else. But he wasn’t going to believe her if she told him that.

“See? I’m not judging you,” Jason said. “We would do the same. That’s why we did what we thought we had to, by taking your boy.”

Five looked back towards the sunrise. The sky was had brightened to a paler blue and most of the fog had burned away. “You don’t get to decide who is worth sacrificing.”

Jason laughed harshly. “How many people have you killed again?”

She stiffened and dug her nails into her arms.

“Oh yeah, Runner Five, the hero of Abel Township, savior of the world,” Jason mocked. “Nobody every seems to remember all the bodies you’ve left in your wake.”

**I do** , she thought. **All the time.**

“You’re a monster right along with us Five.”

Five stared at the rising sun until her eyes teared up, unable to ignore what he said but also unable to respond.

_“Hello Runners”_ Janine spoke over the headset, startling Five. _“As you can see, Dr. Meyers has switched off comms so I will be your operator again for today.”_

Jody stirred and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Five, you were supposed to wake me up after an hour,” she scolded.

Five slid off the boulder. “I knew I couldn’t sleep. Don’t worry, I’m fine,” she said before Jody could protest. From the look Jody gave her it was clear she didn’t believe it. But the sun continued to rise and they didn’t have time to waste.

_“If we can rely on the intelligence you’ve gathered, you should reach Mr. Yao by this afternoon. But you must leave now.”_

Five met Jason’s eyes and held them. 

He was the one to look away.

***

Five and Jody crouched on either side of Jason, peering down on their target from the top of a hill. It was a hunting lodge, a sprawling collection of buildings all connected together by covered walkways. It was fancy, a place Five and her family would never have been able to afford to go to before the apocalypse. A gravel road, guarded by a fortified gate, led up to the center building, which was the largest of the complex. Smooth archways of dark brown wood supported the sharply peaked roof. The upper windows were still intact, but the first-floor windows had been boarded up from the inside. They probably had been beautiful once.

The other buildings, according to Jason, were guest rooms. Those windows remained mostly intact, but she couldn’t tell which ones were inhabited and which were empty. A fence that did not match the gentrified log-cabin aesthetic of the lodge surrounded the complex, which meant it had likely been build post-zombies. It looked sturdy, a mix of wood and chain link topped with barbed wire.

“Well Janine, what’s the plan?” Jody whispered.

_“Runner Five, can you get over the fence?”_

Five scrunched her nose. From what she could tell, that barbed wire extended all the way around the perimeter and was securely fastened. If she tried, it would slice every exposed piece of flesh. “No,” she answered. “But, I might have something else.” She turned and started digging in her pack, withdrawing a pair of bolt cutters.

_“Right,”_ Janine said after a moment, amusement coloring her voice. _“That should work.”_

Jody was grinning and Five shrugged. She had found stranger things on her runs before.

_“Ms. Marsh, why don’t you take your captive to the front gates while Runner Five infiltrates through the back. Perhaps if we propose an exchange we can distract them long enough for Five to move through the enemy territory and rescue Mr. Yao.”_

Five cut a strip of cloth from Jason’s shirt and gagged him. Then she squeezed Jody’s shoulder to wish her good luck and took off to circle around the complex, keeping low to avoid detection. She could hear Jody goading Jason to his feet in her headset as they walked in the opposite direction.

_“Now, Five you should be clear—Dr. Meyers, what are you doing here?”_ She heard Janine sigh. _“You should be sleeping. No, no there’s barely room in here for two people.”_ There was a slight pause and Five could hear a murmur of unintelligible voices. _“Yes, Runner Five and Runner Four are on it.”_

_“Janine?”_ Jody asked.

_“It looks like we have an audience,”_ Janine said drily. _“Dr. Meyers, Dr. Cohen and the rest of our runners are just outside. I have assured them that you two have this situation in hand.”_

Five arrived at the fence and cut an opening with her bolt cutters. The metal came apart with a series of satisfying snaps as she moved downward in a line. Within seconds she had slipped through and into the compound with barely any evidence of her passing. 

_“Oi!”_ she heard Jody shout over her headset. _“I’ve got one of your men. You’ve got one of mine. What do you say we have a little conversation?”_

She couldn’t focus too much on Jody’s part of the plan. Instead, Five sprinted towards the nearest wing of the lodge. The windows were shut but she probably could jimmy her knife through to open them.

Or she could use the rock she saw peeking through the grass.

Five picked up the rock, glancing around to make sure she was alone. With the coast clear she sidled up to the window and peeked inside. The room was dark. Satisfied, she pounded one on the glass with the rock. The glass shattered with a crash and she heard Janine tsk. She wrapped her jacked around her hand to clear out the rest of the glass and then hopped through into an empty guest room and out into an equally empty hallway.

“Janine?”

_“I think—”_ Five heard the clicking of a keyboard. _“Yes, turn left.”_

Five obeyed, sprinting down the carpeted hallway. A door on her left opened as she rushed by and she thought she heard a gasp, but she was past the room before ever seeing the occupant. She had a lot of ground to cover, and not a lot of time.

***

Jody kicked the back of Jason’s knees and he fell to the grass. She kept a hand on his shoulder and propped the other on her hip. “Glad to see you’re reasonable lads,” she said to the two guards at the gate. “Now, who can I talk to so I can get my friend back?”

The two men kept their guns trained on Jody but didn’t speak. She glanced down at Jason to check that the ropes on his wrist and the cloth over his mouth were still in place. Janine was focused on Five, murmuring directions in her typical calm and calculated manner.

“I can wait all day,” she said with a grin. “But Jason might not be so lucky. Now, no offense, but you don’t seem like people in charge. So why don’t one of you run along and get a message to someone who is.”

The guards glanced uncomfortably at each other. The one on the right with an impressive beard reluctantly pulled out a walkie-talkie from his belt and mumbled something into it. Jody winked at him even as the man scowled. 

Jody leaned forward and patted Jason on the cheek. “Just keep behaving a little longer.” Jason shook his head hard. 

They waited in silence and Jody had to consciously stop her feet from tapping the ground. The longer she kept them focused on her, the more time Five had to find Sam. That was the goal. 

She knew her time to perform had arrived when the two men pointing guns at her shifted a little and Jason straightened just a little bit. A figure walked slowly towards her from down the gravel road that led up to the main building. It was a woman in faded military fatigues, dark brown hair shaved close to her head. Jody saw her notice Jason, but she didn’t react to his predicament.

“My men say you want to make a trade,” she stated, walking up to the gate. Her hands were clasped behind her back and she looked relaxed.

“That’s right.” Jody gestured at Jason. “You can have this one back, safe and sound, if you give me Sam Yao.”

The woman nodded slowly. “I see. And why do you think we would make that trade?”

Jody frowned, a slight unease stirring in her gut. “It’s a fair one. You get one of your people and I get one of mine.”

“But Sam Yao can give us the cure. Mr. Carpenter there is just a simple soldier.” 

Jason stiffened and Jody couldn’t hide the disgust in her voice. “You’re willing to let one of your own die?”

The woman smiled without humor. “I’m betting you won’t kill him. You’re from Abel Township. We all know the lines you won’t cross.”

Jody pushed the gun against Jason’s head. “You crossed the line for us when you took Sam. If we don’t get him, you don’t get Jason.”

She shrugged. “Knock yourself out. We have plenty of people to fill his spot. Unless you have something as valuable as the cure, then we have no interest in a deal.” She nodded to the two guards, who raised their guns simultaneously.

“Wait!” Jody said as the woman turned away. The woman paused and looked over her shoulder at Jody.

“We have a vaccine.”

Something like shock flashed in the woman’s eyes, but she quickly concealed it before turning to face Jody fully. “You’re lying.”

“Well,” she shrugged. “We don’t have much, and Doc says it’s really only a—prototype, if you will. But that means we’re still further along than you are, whether or not you have Sam. We can give it to you, if you give him back to us.”

Jody could see the woman was considering it. The risk that she was lying did not outweigh the reward of possibly having a zombie vaccine. “Janine, how are we doing?” Jody muttered into her headset.

_“Runner Five is nearing the target destination. Keep them talking a little longer.”_

Jason yelled through his gag, but his voice was muffled. Jody didn’t need to understand him to know what he was trying to do. She jerked his head back by his collar and growled, “shut up.” He shook his head again.

“Do you have a sample with you?” the woman asked.

“No, but Colonel De Luca is on the radio right now and she says we can give you one.”

The woman scoffed. “You know, I don’t think you have a vaccine at all.”

“It’s a distraction, they’re breaking him out!”

Fear jolted through her body and Jody looked down. The cloth around Jason’s mouth had slipped down just enough for him to form the warning. Jody met the woman’s glare for one charged moment. 

_“Ms. Marsh, retreat!”_

“Fire!”

Both the woman and Janine shouted at the same moment. Jody rolled to the ground as the gunfire exploded through the air. She got to her feet and dashed at a full sprint in one smooth movement, leaving Jason bound behind her. She flinched as the guns fired again, but the shots went wide and she stayed on her feet. 

Jody glanced over her shoulder and saw the woman shouting furiously into her walkie talkie. One of the men was opening the gate and the other was pointing his gun at her. She pushed herself to even greater speeds, zig-zagging as best she could.

“Janine,” she gasped into her headset. “Did we get him?”

Her breathing was loud in the beat of silence before Janine answered. _“Not yet.”_

***

Janine guided her with short perfunctory directions. They managed to avoid detection likely thanks to Jody’s distraction at the front gates. Eventually, Five came to a t-intersection when Janine ordered her to stop. She crouched down and peeked around the corner. A burly man stood in front of a door, one like all the other she had passed, bored and fiddling with a piece of wood in his hands. He yawned and Five leaned back, pressing her head against the wall and calming her racing heart.

“He’s there?” she whispered.

_“It is the most likely location,”_ Janine said just as softly, despite not actually being in the room.

“Okay.” Five glanced around the corner once again and snapped her fingers—so what if she couldn’t whistle?

The guard straightened and looked back and forth for the source of the sound. Five snapped her fingers again to draw his attention. The man hesitated but started to inch down the hallway towards her. Five remained crouched on the balls of her feet, primed to attack the second he rounded the corner.

His foot entered her vision and Five surged up, slamming her fist into his stomach right below his ribcage so he couldn’t cry out. The man doubled over as the breath left his lungs in a rush. Before he could straighten, she rammed the butt of her gun into his temple and he crumpled to the ground.

She dragged his unconscious body around the corner and propped him up on the wall, praying that anyone who saw him would just assume he was sleeping. He would wake up with a painful headache but it wouldn’t be for a while.

_“Ms. Marsh retreat!”_

Five snapped her head up at Janine’s warning and her eyes widened at the sound of gunshots. “Janine?!” she hissed.

_“We’ve been found out.”_ Janine’s voice was clipped and Five could hear the undercurrent of concern. _“Hurry, Five, we don’t have much time.”_

Five patted the unconscious guard down for some sort of key or a key card, her movements becoming more haphazard and frantic with every moment she failed to find it.

Finally, in an inner coat pocket she found a slim, white key card. Triumph bubbled in her chest and she ran to the door and fumbled at the lock. After a breathless moment, it beeped and the tiny red light above the door handle turned green. She shoved the door open. 

Sam sat on a single bed, staring at her in disbelief. The garish bedspread was crumpled on the floor. He was wearing a different shirt than when she had last seen him; blue, oversized and ripped in various spots. But he was alive.

“Five?” he asked.

She sprinted across the room and crushed him in a hug, squeezing with all her strength. He gave a soft _oof_ when she collided into him. After a moment he squeezed her back, just as fiercely.

“You weren’t worried about me now, where you?” he teased after a few moments, his voice muffled against her shoulder. 

“Of course not,” she mumbled, pulling away. She paused when her hands brushed rough, scratchy fabric on his arms. When she realized they were bandages her throat tightened in guilt. “They hurt you.”

“Ah, it’s fine,” he shrugged, but Sam had never been able to hide his feelings very well. She could see on his face that it wasn’t fine.

“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I should have been able to get you out—”

“Woah, don’t do that,” he said earnestly. “This is not your fault Five. You saved me.”

“Not yet, she didn’t.”

Five whirled and saw a blonde, older woman pointing a gun at her. “Runner Five.” She said. “I would have thought you’d be dead by now.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Five said, eyeing the weapon. 

The woman stepped into the room and the gun remained steady in her hand. Sam took a sharp intake of breath. Five waited for help from Janine, but something was happening with Jody on the other end. They were on their own for the moment.

“I can’t let you leave, you know.” She clicked the hammer down, readying to shoot. “He is too important to us.”

Sam surged to his feet and swept Five behind him. “Sam!” she hissed, her chest tightening in panic at the gun now pointed directly at his heart. 

“She won’t kill me, she needs me alive.” His voice shook slightly, but he kept his arm in front of Five, protecting her.

The woman’s eyes flashed. “We did, that’s true. But if we let you both leave, then we have nothing. Maybe it’s time to explore those other options.”

Her instincts flared and Five grasped the back of Sam’s shirt, pulling him backwards before she could think about it. They tumbled to the ground just as the sound of a gunshot rang through the room. Sam cried out in pain and her heart stopped, but Five couldn’t check on him just yet.

There were more bullets in that gun.

She scrambled into a low crouch and rushed at the woman. The woman fired again, a wild look in her eye as Five barreled towards her. Five stumbled as pain exploded in her arm, but she pushed forward and slammed into the woman. The gun went off a third time as Five drove the woman into the wall, then it clattered to the ground. 

Five pressed her unwounded forearm into the woman’s throat as she struggled. The woman tried to find the wound in Five’s shoulder and dig in, but Five just pressed harder. The woman started to choke, and the she started swatting at Five’s arm, desperate for air. Five bore down, but it was the angry light in her eyes that had the woman finally throwing up her hands in surrender. 

Pain seared across her shoulder and arm like lightning, but she gritted her teeth and Five managed to wrangle the woman towards the bed. With her bad hand she took the cuffs that had presumably been used on Sam and, blinking back tears, snapped them over the woman’s wrists. Five’s hands were shaking badly enough that it took her two tries to close them properly.

“Sam!” she called when she was sure the woman couldn’t attack them again, her voice cracking slightly with worry.

“I’m—I’m all right,” he groaned. “I think it just grazed me.”

She looked up to see him holding the side of his shoulder, a mirror image of her own wound. Blood seeped through his fingers in small ribbons. She froze at the sight of the blood. When it dripped onto the snow-white bandages on his arms, her control snapped. She snatched up the discarded gun.

“What’s your name?” she asked the woman, her voice low and dangerous.

The woman raised her chin, but Five could see the fear in her eyes. “Doctor Lisa Carletti.”

Five took a step forward, raw, furious emotion twisting her face. “You’ve hurt my friend. You tried to kill him. Tell me why I shouldn’t shoot you.”

“Five.” Sam placed a hand on her arm and squeezed lightly. “Don’t.”

She couldn’t look away from the woman. The gun felt like it was meant to be in her hand at this moment. “And if it keeps you safe?” she asked. “If it keeps Sarah safe?” **One monster to stop another** , she thought.

“Hey, just…just look at me.”

She took a slow, steadying breath and forced herself to turn away. She turned right into his soft, understanding gaze. “You don’t have to kill her to do that,” he said gently. He cupped her cheek with one hand. “I’m already safe, now that you’re here.”

Five tilted turned her cheek into Sam’s hand. Her fingers tightened around the handle of the gun and her shoulder throbbed, which reminded her of Sam’s own injuries and the absence in her chest when he had been taken. She imagined how much easier it might be if Dr. Carletti was out of the picture.

But as much as she wanted to hurt the woman for what she did, she couldn’t bear to disappoint him.

“Wait outside for me,” she said.

“Five—”

“I won’t kill her,” she promised. “But I need to tell her something.”

Sam glanced between Five and Lisa and nodded slowly before stepping outside the room.

Five crouched and leaned forward. Dr. Carletti flinched away. “If you come near my family again I will kill you. You won’t get a second chance.”

Dr. Carletti swallowed hard. “I don’t think Mr. Yao would approve.”

Five nodded. “He wouldn’t. But if you make it necessary, I’ll pay the cost.” She stood slowly, the gun pointing at the floor. “Goodbye, Dr. Carletti. You should hope we don’t see each other again.”

With that, she left Dr. Carletti behind and met Sam out in the hallway.

_“Runner Five,”_ Janine spoke up, her voice sharp. _“Ms. Marsh has retreated from the gates, unharmed, and will rendezvous at your point of entry. Hostiles are now moving through the complex. I suggest you run.”_

Without a word, Five grabbed Sam’s hand and they ran.

***

Five, Sam, and Jody finally slowed to a walk after Janine confirmed that no one was following them. The sun was beginning to set once again and the light was deepening to a dark gold. Sam’s face was ashy and he held his injured shoulder tightly. Jody brought up the rear and Five met her eyes, giving her a silent signal to keep watch.

“Come here,” she told Sam. “Let me look at that.” She dug through her backpack, silently thanking Janine for making sure all runner’s backpacks came with first aid supplies.

She felt his touch at her shoulder. “You’re hurt too.”

Five waved him off and started tending to his wound. “I’m fine. What were you thinking?” she muttered angrily. Her ministrations were gentle, at odds with her tone. “You shouldn’t have stepped in front of me like that.”

“I was thinking maybe I could keep you from getting shot,” Sam answered.

Five huffed. She was so focused on tending to his injuries that she missed the tender look he gave her. “I’m sorry for scaring you,” he added.

“Maybe just leave the dangerous stuff to me for now, okay?”

“Fine,” he said, moving his shoulder to test out his range of movement and winced. Five put her head in her hands. “But now you know how I feel when you go out there and do that dangerous stuff.”

Five looked down at her feet. **I doubt it,** she thought.Sam took the cloth strips out of her hand and clumsily bandaged her wound too. He pulled the cloth a little too tightly and she hissed. “Sorry!” he said with a small frown. “I’m not very good at this.”

“You’re doing fine.”

“Well I think you’re both idiots,” Jody said with a grin. “We should keep moving. If we hurry we can make it to the old abandoned hay barn we passed before dark. It’ll be the best shelter we can get before we get back to Abel.”

Five looked critically at Sam. “Are you all right to keep running?”

He gave her two thumbs up.

_“All right runners.”_ Janine said. _“You’ve all done very well, but you’ve got to run hard one last time tonight.”_

The hay barn looked even worse in the dying daylight than it had in the dark. The roof was probably held together by a single rusty nail. But there was partial door and the walls would likely last the night, never mind all the holes.

Jody led the way into the barn and up a wooden ladder to the loft. Five brought up the rear, closing the door as much as it would go and then bringing up the ladder after them. If any zoms came through, they would have a height advantage. “I’ll take watch,” she said as she propped the ladder against the wall. Exhaustion clawed at her bones, but her nerves refused to stop clamoring. She knew they wouldn’t settle until everyone was safely behind Abel’s walls.

“Five…” Jody protested, but Five was already positioning herself to face the barn door. Jody sighed, glaring in exasperation at Five’s back before pulling Sam to the side. “Will you talk to her?” she whispered. “She hasn’t slept at all for three days straight. She’s running on fumes, and we still have a day of travel left.”

Sam frowned in Five’s direction. “Three days?”

“Yes. And I’ve tried to talk some sense into her with no luck, but I know she’ll listen to you.” She shooed him away. “Now go.”

Sam shot Jody a skeptical look before making his way next to Five. She glanced at him sidelong as he dangled his feet over the edge and leaned back on his hands. “Five.”

“Sam,” she mimicked. 

“Even you need to sleep every once in a while, you know,” he said.

Five rolled her eyes. “I know Jody’s worried, but I’m fine.”

“Not just Jody. You’re pushing too hard,” he told her. “You got me out, we’re safe. You can let yourself rest.”

He watched her expression tighten ever so slightly and her eyes took on a distant look, as if she was peering through the barn walls and back towards the lodge where he had been held captive. “We’re not safe yet,” she said softly.

“Hey,” he knocked his shoulder against hers. After a moment her eyes came back into focus and she turned towards him. “Come on, let us take watch.”

“Thanks Sam,” Five propped her chin on her arms. “But I’m really not—” she was interrupted by a jaw cracking yawn.

“You weren’t going to say _tired_ were you?” Sam asked innocently. Five swatted his uninjured shoulder.

Behind them they could hear Jody getting settled. The other end of the headset was quiet. Sam looked up at the darkening sky through the jagged hole in the roof. He shivered, suddenly aware of the quick drop in temperature now that the sun had gone down. 

“Here.” He turned his head to see Five holding out her jacket. “You need it more than me.”

“I’m okay.”

Five raised one eyebrow. “You’re cold.”

He crossed his arms. Five eyed him uneasily as a slow, self-satisfied smile spread across his face. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll take the jacket if you promise to try to get some sleep tonight.”

Five fought a smile of her own. “You fight dirty, Yao.”

He shrugged, trying to ignore the sudden, pleasantly fuzzy feeling in his chest. “If you’re going to take care of me, I’m going to take care of you right back.”

“Fine,” she said. Sam took the jacket from her hands gratefully, zipping it up and huddling in to the soft fabric. “But I’m still taking first watch,” she added after he was comfortable.

He groaned. “You know that wasn’t what I meant.”

Five grinned without an ounce of shame.

Sam sighed, but it was as good as he was going to get. So, he left her to it and flopped down on one of the piles of hay, pulling the hood of Five’s jacket up over his head to try and sleep. He tossed and turned, resting fitfully until at one point he heard a rustle next to him. He awoke just enough to confirm that it was Five holding up her end of the deal. Only then did he finally fall into a deep sleep.

When the morning sun streamed through the hole in the roof, Sam woke up stiff and groggy. On instinct he looked to his right and saw Five. She was still asleep, curled in on herself with a slight frown on her face. Her hand rested only a few centimeters away from his own. Slowly, so as not to wake her up, he took the jacket she had given him and draped it over her shoulders. Her frown eased slightly. 

He joined Jody at the edge of the barn loft, where she was keeping the final watch. "Morning."

She glanced at him with a grin. "Morning, Sam. Five still asleep?"

"Yeah," he said. "I didn't want to wake her up yet, I figured we still had some time before we have to get moving."

Jody nodded. "Good.” 

"She always pushes herself so hard whenever Abel is in trouble,” he said, shaking his head. “I wish she would give herself a break more often.”

Jody gave him an odd look. "You think this is about Abel?"

"Isn’t it?”

“Sam…” she sighed. “You were the one she was worried about. She refused to come back after knockout gas, snapped at Janine and threatened to go after you without a headset.”

Sam scoffed, “Come on Jody, that—that’s just Five.”

She rolled her eyes and took a breath to say something, but then she look past Sam’s shoulder and changed her mind. “Hey Five,” she said, her voice just a tad too high. “Sleep okay?”

Five was just finishing putting on her jacket. “As can be expected.” She smiled at Sam. “Thanks, by the way,” she plucked at the fabric.

“Of course,” he mumbled, turning over Jody’s words in his head. “It’s your jacket after all.”

“We should get going.” Five grabbed the ladder and lowered it over the edge of the loft. “Who’s on comms?”

_“Good morning Five, Jody, Sam. You’re free and clear of zoms at the moment, and there is no sign you’re being followed,”_ Paula said. _“We are all waiting anxiously for you to get home.”_

Jody stretched. “Sounds like that’s our cue friends.”

The run back to Abel was uneventful, even pleasant. Sam knew that Five and Jody slowed their pace so he could keep up, but he didn’t mind. By the time they made it back, a welcoming party had gathered at the gates and they ran through to the sound of cheers. The group was led by runners, and hands slapped their shoulders and backs in a friendly way. He caught Five’s eye as she swatted people away good-naturedly. When she smiled at him, he found himself smiling back.

It was good to be home.

***

Jason looked up as Dr. Carletti entered the room. She placed a paper cup of water in front of him on the table and then took a seat across the table from him. He drank the water gratefully.

“It is good to have you back with us Jason,” she said, watching him carefully as he set the empty cup down. “You went through quite an ordeal.”

“Thanks, Doc. I just wanted to say, I’m sorry again for leading them here. But I had no choice, if I hadn’t I would’ve have ended up like Chris.”

Dr. Carletti nodded and rubbed her throat absently. “I understand, you wanted to survive. It’s a natural instinct in all of us.”

“But now—” he shook his head. “Now we can get him back right? if we just, um, if we just take out…” he rubbed his eyes. “Take out Runner Five.” He blinked at her in confusion. 

She stared at him as his eyelids drooped and his head bobbed while he tried to fight off the drug now coursing through his system. “Doc, what’s happening?” he mumbled.

“We all want to survive Jason. You’ve made that more difficult by facilitating Sam Yao's escape and bringing those runners here.” She stood up and knocked on the door. Two men came in and picked Jason up by the arms. His head lolled on his shoulders as they carried him away. His feet dragged limply across the floor. “But you’ll make it up to us. Eventually.”

****

Five stood in front of Janine’s office door, took a deep breath, and knocked.

“Come in.”

She pushed the door open, bracing herself for the consequences she had known were eventually going to come her way. She just didn’t think it would take this long. Janine was sitting at her desk, a mug at her elbow, with a stack of papers strewn across the surface. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail and no strands of hair dared to escape their tie. She gave Five a small smile and gestured toward the empty chair in front of her. “Please, sit.”

Five sat gingerly in the chair and Janine nodded at her arm. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ve had worse,” she said with a half-smile.

Janine folded her hands in front of her on the desk. “Yes, you have. That’s partly why I asked you to see me today. I know you may think that I can be a little…heartless sometimes. I have always had the ability to compartmentalize my emotions in order to do my job and protect my citizens.”

Five looked down. “Janine,—” 

“Wait,” Janine interrupted gently. “That also means I sometimes overlook how those under my command may be feeling. And I know that I—and Abel--have taken you for granted.”

Five glanced up again, startled, but Janine was completely serious. “For that I want to say I’m sorry. You do so much for us, and I need you to know that we are grateful for all of it.” 

Janine paused for a moment, frowning at her folded hands. “I also need you to know that you’re nothing like what Jason said. You are not a monster, Five.”

Five curled her hands into fists, but said nothing.

Janine sighed. “I overheard your conversation with Jason, and your exchange with Dr. Carletti. Even though you make difficult decisions, as we all must, you do it to protect others. You put _yourself_ in the line of fire, you don’t make others do it for you. She acted out of fear and selfishness. You act out of love and duty.”

“But I disobeyed your orders,” Five argued. “I put Abel at risk.”

Janine nodded. “Yes, you disobeyed my orders. For that, I am assigning you to clean the privies for a week. The other reason I asked you to see me,” she added, offhand.

Five nodded, wrestling with a feeling of relief. The punishment was significantly more lenient that what she expected and she was glad for it, but she wasn’t sure she didn’t deserve worse. 

Janine leaned back in her chair, the wood creaking slightly. “But though you may have acted rashly, you did it to protect Sam. And while he may hold a particular place in your affections,” she suppressed a smile at the sudden redness in Five’s cheeks, “I know you would protect the rest of us with the same dedication.”

“I truly am sorry for putting Abel at risk, for making your job harder,” Five said softly.

Janine nodded. “I know. Once you’ve finished your punishment, you’ll be back on the runner rotation. If you feel healed enough?”

“Yes, of course,” she said quickly.

“Good.” Janine went back to her papers. “You are dismissed.” 

Five tapped the arms of her chair and started to retreat from the office, but before she could make her escape Janine called out to her. “And Five?”

She looked back, one hand on the door knob. Janine gave her a conspiratorial smile. “Well done.”

***

A week later, Five was at the gates with her headset and backpack. She had finished her punishment detail and her arm was healed enough that Maxine couldn’t overrule Five’s insistence she get back out there. She was ready to run. 

Well, almost. She still needed a radio operator. 

_“Sorry, sorry!”_ Sam said. Five winced at the clatter Sam made as he burst through the door of the comms shack. _“Stephen made cupcakes—real cupcakes!—and the crowd took a while to get through. Don’t worry Five, I saved one for you too. I made sure to get you one with extra sprinkles.”_

She laughed. “Thanks, Sam.”

_“Ooookay, what do we have today?”_ She heard him shuffling some papers around. _“Looks like a standard patrol run, something easy to get us back into the swing of things. How does that sound?”_

She readjusted her headset. “Sounds great.” Her heart started to race with the anticipation of another run and she couldn’t help but smile. She was home, Sam was back, and the sun was shining.

_“All right then,”_ she could hear the grin in Sam’s voice. _“Raise the gates!”_


End file.
